ABSTRACT
The myth of the unicorn is primarily represented by 'La Dame à la Licorne', an image was popularized iconographically, particularly by that late representation, the result of a long process of evolution, the tapestry in the Cluny Museum collection. It is also the story of the capture of an elusive and inaccessible wild animal which is timid rather than fierce, and which can only be pacified by a young maiden. Since it is reduced to this single event, the legend is surprisingly devoid of incident. However, it does have extremely strong powers of suggestion due to the ambiguities that it has contained from the outset; these increase in proportion to the number of literary and artistic adaptations as well as equivalent versions in heraldry, alchemy and occultism. A changing and symbolic tale, often far-removed from the original image, has been woven around the unicorn. The common factor in its development is found in the chapter devoted to this (and many other animals) in the Bestiaires du Moyen Age, where the hunting of the unicorn is used to support a Christological interpretation, and the myth seems merely to serve as a vehicle for a more profound meaning. In other words, it provides an agreeable form of presentation for a deeper significance which constitutes its true function. There was a brief stable period occurring on the literary fringes during which the creature was associated with encyclopaedic texts and characterized by the ideological and formal influence of the Biblical interpretation. The appearance in literature of the unicorn as a metaphor for the snares of love and then as a familiar spirit, the antithesis and the complement of the lion, is a reinterpretation of the early theme, which was purely religious.
